ABSTRACT
Political parties may be based on appeals to many different forms of identity, interest or conviction. Since political parties are a phenomenon of the modern world, in which religion has supposedly been confined to the private sphere, religion has not often been the main basis on which parties are organized. In fact it has often been assumed that religiously inspired parties will be carriers of anti-modern reactions restricted to certain sectors of society, and will tend to disappear; but also that, should they achieve power, they would represent a serious threat to freedom, pluralism and democracy.
